Notes

Friday High Five: Best of the Best (Books of 2014)

We thought we’d say goodbye to 2014 by making it easy for you to make some last-minute Christmas gift - and summer reading choices. Here are five of the handiest retrospectives on the best books of 2014, all of them Australian (and some of them by us).

Every year, the Age and Sydney Morning Herald invite Australian writers to choose their best books of 2014. This year, some of the featured writers sharing their picks include Graeme Simsion (The Rosie Effect), Clare Wright (The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka), Maxine Beneba Clarke (Foreign Soil) and Don Watson (The Bush).

Readings Best Books of 2014

Melbourne bookseller Readings compiles a comprehensive best books list each year, chosen by staff as a collective - and helpfully broken down into categories, including a strong contingent of Australian books. Categories include fiction, non-fiction, crime, young adult books, picture books, food and garden books, and art and design books. You can browse them all on their website.

Guardian Australia Best Books 2014

Selected staff and freelance writers for Guardian Australia - including David Marr, Jeff Sparrow and Brigid Delaney - have chosen their best books of 2014. This list has an all-Australian focus.

Wheeler Centre staff best books of 2014

Last but not least, we have our own annual best books tradition - where we ask Wheeler Centre staff to choose their favourite books of the year. It’s an in-house favourite, as we all get to see what each other are reading and loving. You can read our staff best books here on our website.

Please feel free to leave your own best books of 2014 in the comments.

We’d love to hear what you think! (And whether you agree or disagree with any of the choices here.)